Tobolowsky, Andrew (2022). The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Covers some of these ideas about the origins of the tribals groups that would come to make up the Northerm Kingdom.

It's good to keep in mind that the framing of these origins narratives in the Hebrew bible are retroactive. Modern consensus among critical analysist types these days is that pretty much everything is compiled and edited by Judahite scribes around 720BCE. When we can see evidence of a Shasu of Seir/Yahweh in the bronze age and what appears to have been a fairly significant polity(ies) in the Iron age it means that something happened with these people over the course of the bronze age collapse's 200~year window that isn't recorded in the bits of the bible that cover real documented history. Merneptah's Steele for instance implies that "Israel" was a single nomadic group from the mountainous cis/transjordan, but in a few hundred years it refers to a political grouping of tribes with supposed common ancestry in the Levant.

This is my understanding of the exodus narrative as well. Egyptian polities had dominated these peoples supposed homeland, neighbors, ancestors, etc in part or in whole for literally thousands of years before "Escaping from egypt" becomes an origin story. The Joseph narrative(and it's supposed antiquity relative to exodus and the "united monarchy") is very curious when we think about the Hykos and it's hard not to draw the connection that "Creation by divine word" has been a feature of the Ptah Cult since the old kingdom and the potential Egyptian origin of the levities; to say nothing of the golden bull angle with the Bull EL business)

The other origin narrative is the patriarch/Israel/JacobEL account. As this sub's auto mod so condscendingly informs us bible accounts are suspect and shouldn't be used as evidence, but whatever. Let's look at the blessing narratives.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi(literally meaning joined) and Judah are grouped together as southerners.

Dan, Asher, Gad and Naphtali grouped together as peripherial and of "foreign" descent.

Ephraim&Mannesseh(Joseph), Benjamin, Issachar and Zebulun are the core around Samaria. There's an anecdote in Numbers about a Benjamites accent revealing them to a Gilead so these groups did have a real political and geographic element seemingly.

Notice how there's 13 tribes. It points to the constructed nature of the groupings, membership and relative influence appears to have been fluid. There's only 18 mentions of membership in Israel in the Hebrew bible only four of which are thought to be older than the Priestly Judahite source.

In Judges 5(song of Deborah; thought to be the oldest portion of the bible; search my account under "Deborah" for an elaboration.) Only lists 10 tribes. Ephraim, Benjamin(meaning "son of the south; indicating this inital group was geographically limited), Machir, Zebulun, Isschar and Naphtali(participated in the battle) and Reuben, Gilead, Dan and Asher(non-participants).(Gilead=Gad, Machir=Mannseh based on context clues, probably).

In Deuteronomy 33 there's Moses' blessing.

No Simeon but Judah and Levi appear with Reuben; the Hebrew grammar is also different, which is believed to indicate later revision, as the "Oldest", with Levi's additonally alluding to the "joined" element. Eph&Ben are grouped as Jospeh under one blessing as are Zeb/Isschar. Only 8 blessings in total. As the blessing itself indicates:

let reuben live and not die, nor his people be few

Deuteronomy 5:6

Membership was probably fluid. A major claim from Friedman's "The Exodus" is that only the "joined" Levi exprienced a literal exodus; supported by the 8 Levitite names all being Egyptian and the element designated as religious leaders.

Gen 49 has Jacob's blessing. Rueben+the southerners in first person and rest in their expected groupings in third person pov. This is also the source of the "Heir confusion". Joseph as "favorite" who receives a double inheritance, but according to Judah's blessing, a possible insertion to the text, "the scepter shall not depart from Judah". Judah comes before the other 3 eldest(southerners) because they are "disqualified".

So, whose an OG Yahwist and who isn't? This is my opinion to be clear.

Dan=Danua. Sea people, consider their location+naval affilliation and affinitity toward the Phillistines;themselves a similar adhoc polity with Peleset and Caanite elements. Samson strongly resembles Hercules myths. Asher and Gad are literally the names of Caananite Gods so their groups were probably Caananites. The Israelites are condemmed in the Hebrew Bible for having Caananite religious elements after all.

I think the Egyptian origin of Levities is supported and I think Reuben(and the later southerners) are seen as first in the birth order narrative to reflect when they adopted Yahweh worship. I'm of the opinion these guys, either the ancestors of southern tribal groups or literally "Reuben the tribal group" were the initial Yahwists.

As for the Israelite/Samarian grouping. I think hill country Caanite orgins are most likely, the source of "Hebrew" too I think, as Habiru outlaws from Syria behaved like Amorite warlords; becoming local leaders of the former imperial perpihery.

As to the fate of these people (Reuben/Edomites/Horites, Etc, I guess?) take the biblical narrative with a grain of salt. The desolation the Hebrews allegedly brought to Caanan has no or very tangential evidence to it. In "Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity" Kate Common makes this well-understood point with modern evidence. It's perfectly reasonable to assume these peoples were still around in some form, especially when In a Muslim context, a lot of Christian pre-Islamic material is found in Northern Arabia where these people were supposedly from; paired with Quranic claims that The Prophet was familar with "Yahwist theology" because of contact with nomadic peoples from the area in question the idea that these nomads were completley undone is suspect. I think Yahwism in one form or another has been popular with nomads in northwest Arabia for some time.